motion blur

[dk]

Here are a couple m/b shots I recently took. I'm fairly new to m/b and hope to get some tips from y'all.





Thanks a million.

dk

[Raskill]

The best way to get good motion blur is to practice then practice then practice some more. Good panning technique is the key. You've got a good practice area, so keep going with it. Also, try going to a motor sport meet, the speed will really test you, and you'll be happier with your keepers.

Set the camera for 'shutter priority', then select a suitable speed, which will depend upon what your shooting. Hi speed motor sport will still give motion blur around the 320 - 400 mark, obviously, for slower vehicles, you need slower shutter speeds. This is where it can start to get difficult, because if you use to slow a shutter speed, it will be hard to pan smoothly, a VR lens will held this, but the cost may be prohibitive. Also, if you find yourself still having difficulties, you can try panning using a monopod of even a tripod (never used a tripod myself, but you can get excellent results doing it).

There are a few motorsport threads on the site that will give you a good idea.

The motion blur in the image of the truck is good, the vehicle is still sharp, and you've acheived a good bit of blurring. The bike pic shows little in the way of MB to me.

Look forward to more pics!

[Collingwood]

As the advice above, be very wary of your framing while panning as for most people this seems to go out the window when they are concentrating on being smooth etc. Yeah, I know, it's hard stuff to do when in the field but I'm just giving the advice here!
Also consider that not all panning needs to be completely side on to the subject. You will get motion blur on parts of the subject by doing this but it can work to your benefit.
Bike shot needs more blur, truck shot the mb aspect is good but the framing is neither close enough or wide enough to work for me.

[BT*ist]

Hi DK,

Motion blur, as mentioned, requires practice. When I was in Hong Kong, I spent a (pleasant) half an hour at about 10:30pm on a street corner tracking trams as they passed by. Due to low light, I actually used 1/4sec exposures. Not many turned out because panning smoothly and evenly is hard. My best result:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61147501@N00/87245046/

One other thing I learned specific to nighttime panning:

Over 1/4sec, if the subject is traveling in a straight line at a reasonable speed, you get a fair bit of blur regardless of how smoothly you pan, simply because the subject has moved and is at a bit of a RANGE of distances from your camera over the length of the expsure. This is less of an issue when doing a pan of 1/60sec in bright daylight, of course. But for this reason, I specifically chose a vantage point where the tram travelled around a corner, so I was (sort of) at the radius of a circular path taken by the subject.

[Marvin]

Pirostitch won Picture of the Year for DSLR Users last year with a great motion blur picture. Perhaps he can give you some tips. His picture is here http://www.potofgrass.com/gallery/potw/05_31_2005_Pirostitch.

[dk]

Thanks y'all.

I can always count on straight-forward advice here. It helps make me a better photographer.

dk